Description
Unpacking Critical Race Theory (CRT) and exploring why it has become a focus in politics across the US and the UK, White Lies uses CRT to expose the systemic racism that shapes education. It charts the coordinated campaigns – involving think tanks, mainstream media and politicians – that have tried to silence antiracism in the wake of George Floyd's murder and 'Black Lives Matter'.
Each chapter is devoted to exposing a key ‘white lie’ by examining the evidence that shows how the interests of white people continue to occupy centre stage and block movement towards a more equitable education for all. Gillborn establishes how the public debates, shaped by misinformation and 'white lies', sustain race inequity and portray antiracism as a threat to freedom and justice. Key controversies are dissected and debunked, including:
- the extensive and coordinated anti-CRT campaigns in the US and the UK;
- the use of racial gaslighting to undermine claims to social justice;
- how multiple forms of intimidation are used to silence antiracist teaching and protest;
- the inaccurate portrayal of the white working class as race victims; and
- how cruelty, in policy, aims to unify whites and demonize minorities.
By avoiding unnecessary jargon to make complex debates accessible to a wide audience, this book is ideal reading for anyone studying CRT or interested in the topic of contemporary educational equality.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
Part I: The Current Race War
2. Critical Race Theory: Facts and Fictions
3. A Timeline of Racism, Misinformation and Violence
4. Racial Gaslighting and Intimidation:
Part II: Distraction and Divergence
5. The White Working Class as Race Victims?
6. Policy: Racism, white Ignorance and Cruelty as Spectacle
7. Conclusions: Racism, Power and Inhumanity
